Apparatus for making catsup.



Patented Aug. 11. 19M

witnesses attorneys THE A ORRIS PETERS 60.. PHom-LITHu, WAaHINbION, I),C.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE R. FIELDS, OF TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA, A SSIGNOR TO THE FIELDSCOMPANY,

A CORPORATION OF INDIANA.

APPARATUS FOR MAKING: CATSUP.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 11, 1914.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE R. FIELDS, a citizen of the United States,residing at Terr-e I-Iaute, in the county of Vigo and State of Indiana,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus forMaking Catsup; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full,clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame.

This invention relates to apparatus for cooking vegetable pulp,particularly catsup by such a process as is described in my pendingapplication bearing Serial Number 816,118, filed February 2, 191 1, andan object of the invention is to provide a sanitary apparatus, thecontainer portion of which is formed of some material such as wood, aswill not afiect the natural color of the vegetable pulp.

A further object of the invention is to provide a heating element ofsuch a nature as will enable the operator to apply to the pulp a heatconsiderably above the boiling point of water and to apply this heatfrom within a wooden tank.

A still further object of the invention is to provide an apparatus whichwill make it possible to check the boiling over of the vegetable pulpand thus to retain the natural coloring matter of the pulp.

A still further and more particular object of the invention is toprovide a wooden vat of peculiar construction having a one-piece bottomso arranged as to allow the contents to discharge by gravity.

With these and other objects in View, the invention consists in certainnovel constructions, combinations and arrangements of the parts as willbe hereinafter more fully described, and then specifically pointed outin the claims.

In the drawings, where similar reference characters designatecorresponding parts,

and wherein one adaptation of the invention is shown, Figure 1 is avertical central section through the vat; Figs. 2 and 3 are de tails ofstaves used to make the vat as will be described in detail hereinafter.

The tomato and other vegetable pulp boiling kettles and vats which arenow in use are for the most part made of metal and heated from withoutand they are usually provided with a double bottom which constructiondestroys the natural color of the pulp due to the metal vat, consumes anunnecessary amount of time in boiling the material due to the fact ofbeing heated from without and become contaminated due to the remainingin the crevices formed in the false bottoms of small quantities ofvegetable pulp which portions cannot be readily re moved from the vatwhile the same is being cleaned and which subsequently decay and fostergerms which permeate the next mass of pulp which is to be cooked.

The present invention aims to overcome these difficulties and objectionsby providing a wooden vat having steam coils therein arranged upon theone-piece sloping bottom.

In order that the invention may be more fully understood, reference isto be had to the accompanying drawings.

The wooden vat used for boiling the vegetable pulp and shown generallyat 1 comprises a number of staves or sections, the staves at the leftcenter and right as shown in Fig. 1 being numbered 2 2 and 2respectively.

seen that these staves are tapered so as to be of less width at the topthan at the bottom and they are also provided with tongue and grooves asis common practice for affording a close fit between the staves. Thesestaves are made preferably of wood of any variety and are made in mostrespects like ordinary tapered vats. The lower ends of the staves 2 and2 are provided with grooves 3 and 3 respectively, these grooves beingtapered as seen best in Fig. 1 and the center line of the grooves issubstantially perpendicular to the long axis of the stave. The staveshown at 2 in Fig. l is shown in detail in Fig. 2 and is seen to have agroove 8 at an angle other than a right angle to the long axis of thestave 2 It will be understood that the groove 3 on the central stave asseen in F ig. 1 will be more oblique than any of the other groovesinasmuch as the staves to either side of this central stave will havetheir grooves disposed more nearly at right angles to the long axis ofthe stave. The staves are so arranged that the grooves of adjacentstaves are contiguous and form a complete slot around the bottom of thevat, the plane of the slot being oblique to the vertical axis of thevat.

i By referring to Figs. 2 and 8, it Wlll be .and outlet pipes.

In order to close the lower end of the vat, there is provided a bottom4, the periphery of which is tapered as at 5 to conform generally to thegrooves just described and in practice, it is found that although thebottom 4 is disposed oblique with respect to a horizontal line thebottom is made circular in form, although, of course, if the pitch ofthe bottom were to be made greater it might be desirable to make thelatter elliptical. It will be seen that this bottom comprises a singlepiece wherein the groove is substantially in a plane with the sides ofthe bottom so that no grooves are formed within which vegetable pulp maybe lodged.

means of supports 6 secured in any approved manner to the bottom 1 issupported the heating element indicated generally at 8. This elementcomprises a pair of coils, one concentric with the other, the inner coil9 being spaced from the outer coil 10 by a distance approximately equalto the distance from the outer coil 10 to the vat 1. There may beprovided as many convolutions of these coils as are necessary and anysuitable means may be employed for supplying the same with steam, but Ihave shown in the drawings a coupling 11 passing from the coil 9 to apoint without the vat, while coupling 12 connects the coil 10 to anotherpoint without the vat, the two coils being fed from the same source ofsteam so as to have the coils of the same temperatureor may be fed bysteam of different pressures so as to have one coil at a temperaturedifierent from the other. Coil 9 has a coupling 13 which passes throughthe bottom While coil 10 has a coupling 14 passing through the bottom 4and these couplings 13 and 14 which form the outlet for the condensedwater may be connected to a steam trap 15 of any approved design andforming no part of the present invention. After the vat has beenassembled and the bottom 4 is in 312108 the coils are 7 mounted upon thesupports 6 and the couplings 11 and 12 passed through the sides of thevat while couplings 13 and 14 passed through the bottom and suitablepacking employed for preventing the escape of steam, while if foundnecessary, of course, additional packing such as is commonly known inthe art may be employed to prevent charring of the wood around the inletBefore the coils which may be made of any suitable material such ascopper, are placed in a vat, they are given a coat of block tin. Thiscoating of the coils with block tin is designed to close up all theopenings and crevices within which vegetable pulp might lodge. It isdesigned under normal working conditions to supply coils with steam at apressure approximately eighty pounds to the square inch, but of course,I am not limited to the use of steam at this pressure, but when thispressure is used the coils will be at a temperature somewhat over threehundred de-- grees F. from which it will be understood that the pulpwill be almost immediately boiled so that less time is required to heatthe pulp than would be the case if heat were applied from the outside ofthe vat. It will also be understood that coils of this temperature mighthave a deteriorating effect upon wood if some comparatively dense mediumfor consuming heat were not interposed between the heating coils andwooden vat (vegetable pulp), but it will be seen that the coils arespaced from the sides and bottom of the vat and it is possible to use aheating element of rather high temperature in a wooden vat by reason or"this spacing of the coils on the wooden structure. (it course, thespacing of the coils as shown, also admits of free boiling of the pulp.

In the boiling of vegetable pulp, especially tomato catsup, it is commonexperience that when the eatsup first boils up the natural coloringmatter which forms one of the lighter constituencies of the pulp risesto the top of the cooking mass and it some means is not provided forpreventing the boiling over of the pulp, this coloring matter will belost. In order to check the boiling over it spray water over the catsupand I have shown at 16 a convenient water sprayer which may be fed fromany source of water not shown and may be supported in any way. Themethod of mounting this sprayer 16 is of little consequence, but it isdesirable that the same be located in a position central with respect tothe vat when the water is sprayed. Aside from cooling the top surface ofthe boiling mass and thereby checking the boiling over the cold watercarries down into the boiling mass the coloring matter in its path sothat the natural coloring material is preserved. It will be seen thatthis sprayer acts in conjunction with the wooden stares forming the vatfor preserving the natural color of the cooking pulp. In order to holdthe staves together, there are provided hoops 17, the lowermost hoop asshown in Fig. 1 having the center thereof below groove in stave 2 whilethe center of the same hoop is above the center of the groove in stave2", this arrangement making it possible to keep a pressure between thestaves and the bottom. In order that the materials may be withdrawn fromthe interior of the vat, there is provided a stop cock 18 substantiallyas shown in Fig. 1 and it is to be understood that any other form ofstop cock may be used. If desirable that portion of the lowermost hoop17 which is adjacent the cook 18 may be enlarged.

I claim:

1. A vat for evaporating vegetable pulp comprising Walls made of aplurality of staves, the lower ends of the staves being grooved on theirinner surfaces, said grooves in adjacent staves being contiguous, theplane of the groove being oblique to the axis of the vat and a bottomformed of a planate member having the periphery thereof located withinthe grooves, and means adjacent the lowest point of the bottom fordrawing off the contents of the vat.

2. A vat for evaporating vegetable pulp comprising a plurality of stavesadapted to lie adjacent each other to form a closed wall, the lowerinner ends of each of said staves being provided with a groove, thegrooves of adjacent staves being contiguous, the plane of the groovesbeing oblique to the vertical axis of said closed Wall, a single bottommember conforming to the said wall having the periphery thereof locatedwithin the grooves, and means located adjacent the lowest portion of thebottom adapted to pass the contents of the vat.

3. A vat for evaporating vegetable pulp,

comprising a wall provided upon the inner lower sides thereof with agroove, the plane of said groove being oblique with respect to ahorizontal plane and a planate member forming the bottom and having theperiphery thereof received by the groove, and means for passing thecontents of the vat, said means located adjacent the lowest portion ofthe bottom. I

4. In an apparatus for cooking vegetable stock, the natural coloringmatter of which rises to the surface of the stock when the latter boils,a wooden tank, a heating element located within the tank and adjacentthe bottom thereof, and means to spray a liquid into the tank when thevegetable pulp is boiling.

In testimony whereof I afiiX my signature in presence of two witnesses.

GEORGE R. FIELDS.

W. H. WAKEFIELD.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G.

